| Author | Pollard | |
| Distribution | Supposedly present in the southern portions of the Mountains and Piedmont, but specimens apparently have yet to be annotated; currently all(?) herbaria list this species within V. tripartita var. glaberrima, or within V. glaberrima. Thus, this website can provide no map of county records at the present time. This is a new and likely controversial split, included in Weakley (2020); SERNEC now lists one record -- for Iredell County.
Weakley (2020) gives "Sw. NC and c. TN south to c. SC, w. GA, FL Panhandle, and c. and nw. AL". | |
| Abundance | Not known at all, but probably very rare or rare, as Weakley's (2020) map shows "rare" in each of the Mountains and Piedmont of NC. The website editors suggest a Watch List status, and give a preliminary rank of [S1?] for now. | |
| Habitat | From Weakley (2020): "Rich dry to dry-mesic forests ... occupies somewhat drier microsites" than does the very similar V. glaberrima, a species of rich lower slopes and bottomlands. Both species probably only occur over high pH soils. | |
| Phenology | Flowers and fruits from February to March, according to Weakley (2020). | |
| Identification | From Weakley (2020): "Leaf blades lance-triangular to rhombic-lanceolate, broadest just above the base, base broadly cuneate to truncate; apical half of blade subentire; stem and leaves minutely puberulent, hairs requiring magnification to see clearly; [mostly south of TN and NC]". The extremely similar V. glaberrima has "Leaf blades narrowly ovate, broadest well above the base, base broadly rounded to cuneate; apical half of blade with conspicuous marginal teeth; stem and leaves sparsely to moderately hirtellous with easily visible hairs; [north of GA and SC]" (Weakley 2020). | |
| Taxonomic Comments | See above. Only very recently considered as a full species, split from V. glaberrima, which itself is usually considered in most references as a variety of V. tripartita! Thus, references likely will be slow in listing this taxon as a full species anytime soon.
General note on Viola: In 2009-10 B.A. Sorrie (website map editor) went through the whole collection at NCU, annotating all specimens against those verified by experts in the genus. The range maps in RAB (1968) have been changed accordingly. More recently, Harvey Ballard and colleagues are in the process of revising all Eastern and Southeastern Viola, and have annotated all specimens at NCU in July 2024. They recognize additional species not in RAB or in previous editions of Weakley et al.; we will follow updated editions of Weakley et al. in recognizing them. Species range maps have been adjusted to account for identification changes. | |
| Other Common Name(s) | None? | |
| State Rank | [S1?] | |
| Global Rank | GNR | |
| State Status | [W7] | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
